.... I love the look of stitches, the way thread marries the fabric ....

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Corduroy Jacket

My all-time favourite sewing is to make a jacket. I have more jackets than I can count, and some have not even been worn. It is the making of them that I love.

Two weeks ago, I decided to clear out some stuff in my sewing room, and opened a container to find these three fabrics in there plus a pattern and thread. I had bought this over a year ago, with great intentions of making this up right away, then got side-tracked. When I saw the project, my interest rekindled and I cut it out that afternoon and got working on it.

The blue is wide wale corduroy, the plaid is a flannelette sheet bought at the Sally Ann store (much cheaper than buying flannel fabric) and the print is a quilting cotton bought at the local fabric store. The flannel was stitched to all the print pieces on the wrong side, so that it forms an interlining for the jacket. I wanted a jacket that would be useful in fall and early spring, when our temperatures dip and the winds can be quite cold.

Close up of a button. A square of the lining fabric is stitched to the outside and the buttonhole made through the four layers. No need for any interfacing in a jacket like this.

The entire jacket is put together by stitching the flannel to the lining fabric, make the outer coat, make the lining, place them wrong sides together and then bind the entire jacket with bias strips made from the lining fabric. I have bound more jackets than I can recall this way, and my preference is for double binding, cut 3 3/4" wide, pressed in half, then stitched to the right side of the jacket, wrapped around to the inside and stitched in the ditch to catch the binding. It is extremely quick, gives an even binding, since you use your seam allowance as the guide.

The pattern used is this one, Butterick 5532, still currently available. The only thing I had to buy to complete this jacket was six buttons. And I have a metre of the corduroy left over, plus enough of the print to make a sleeveless top.

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